The Orphans
by TastySparks
Summary: "This country never stops weeping, but I'll be the one who makes it stop. I will heal this nation and show the world we are not victims to it's pursuits of peace!" Yahiko yelled over the sound of the thundering rain. Konan smiled, walking to stand beside him as they stared down on their beloved and broken village. Slowly his dream became her dream.
1. Ch1: Cow Milk

A/n: I'll be honest and say this is one of my first real shots at fan fiction. This is a sudden idea I had on Yahiko's origin and "pain" philosophy. I hope you like it, enjoy.

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Naruto

* * *

"Hey you! Hold it right there!" came the gruff cries of the fisherman as Yahiko scurried away, disappearing into the mass of people at the marketplace. The clinks of metal restraining cuffs ringing in his ear were a melody he was quite familiar with as the guards started in pursuit at his heels.

Yahiko smirked, taking a quick, large bite out of his stolen fish and savoring the taste of something other than air going into his stomach. It had been a couple of days since his last meal, and that had been a miracle. Bugs aren't fond of the village Hidden in the Rain.

He swerved and sidestepped the towering figures of strangers in their black cloaks who hardly paid notice to his pushing.

They were all in a very narrow street where the stores are lined up on either side, showing off various items and foods for sale. In a country where everyone was on the verge of starving, the only thing that mattered was setting something in their stomachs for dinner. Even if it was rain soaked.

People were usually too busy trading away their belongings for food or figuring out how much would they need to last another week. No one had any thoughts to spare for a filthy war orphan, just one out of numerous begging in the streets.

Many of them dropped dead every day from the hunger. The villagers had learned to tune them out and avoid the inactive streets where the abandoned children were most abundant in trying to avoid the guilt. Yahiko couldn't stand their repelled and twisted faces in pain as they walked past all of them as fast as they could. He couldn't stand being treated like some sort of disease.

Yahiko jumped right above a table showing fruits and cabbage drenched in rain, scooping up an apple as he passed almost gracefully. Customers gasped in surprise and storekeepers swore as he whizzed past their very noses. "Stop that kid!" they bellowed, the guards grunting after him.

The commotion made people part out of the way in search of what the problem was, making it easier for Yahiko to pick up speed towards the turn at the corner. Lightning flashed, bathing the sky in white for a second. When the guards finally pushed the last civilian at the end of the packed street, Yahiko was gone.

The orange, spiky haired child stopped in the middle of the manhole tunnel descent, gently resting his head on the ladder and panting. His stomach growled for more and he took another small bite out of the fat fish heavy in his hand. He chewed slowly, closing his eyes in enjoyment to the tingling of his taste buds. His mouth curved into a wide and triumphant smile, salivating for the fish. He would eat this tonight. He would not starve tonight.

Later in the darkness, Yahiko rested to the sound of the slimy scuttling of the rats. He had not resorted to eating them since disease was abundant in the village and rats were a suspected cause, but he knew some orphans who did.

He barely slept and when he did, he made sure not to do it in the sewers. Yahiko hated rats.

"Aahh" Yahiko let out a satisfied yawn, rubbing his belly in circular motions. He had eaten all of the fish and had made sure to savor it too. His mind went back to how his father had always insisted on eating slow. It helps to fill the stomach more and enjoy the food.

"You never know when your next will be" His father had winked at him at their lonely wooden table back at his farm. In those days he had always been in a rush to eat and go about playing and doing his usual chores. Now he could barely swallow the food till it was mush in his mouth and all savored.

"I miss the cow milk" Yahiko lamented to no one, slumped in the abandoned tunnel. He had once also refused to drink the milk of his father's cows. It had tasted "funny" to him. It wasn't funny that the only thing he had to drink now was rain water.

His eyelids were becoming heavier by the minute but he couldn't stand up, he was much too full. "Maybe if I just lay here.." Yahiko yawned, lying his head on the cold, damp ground. He was breaking his own rule but just this once he could make an exception..it had been a good day. Within minutes he was asleep and dreaming. He dreamed of that wonderful cow milk he used to hate.

Sounds that weren't the steady dripping of water woke him up after a few hours. Yahiko was used to sleeping light and he immediately bolted up, flinching. His neck was throbbing painfully from sleeping on the ground.

He could hear the distant chatter of two men getting closer.

"I gotta move before they find me here!" Yahiko thought, biting his lip. He glanced down the tunnel to the light, golden paint of the ladder handles, the only thing he could barely see in the middle of the darkness.

There was no time to make the distance without giving away his position.

"My footsteps will echo and I'll be caught for sure." He backed to the furthermost corner of the sewer clearing. If he was just quiet enough, they'll walk right by him. His heart pounded and he couldn't stop breathing loudly out of excitement. Just as they were getting near he put a hand over his mouth and held his breath.

The talk was getting louder and eventually the silver vests of the two guards where moving in the darkness, their owners's figures completely blacked out.

"We'll have to report this one back to base."

"It's just another brat, what's so special about this one?"

"She died right on our watch, Ken. They'll want to have it on record in case her family-"

"Only because she was evading our pursuit and preferred to jump off the cliff into enemy territory. She's just another orphan crawling around this drowning city." Ken snickered in the dark and they both stopped.

"Let's just say we found her lying in the street like most of the pack rats around here." Ken suggested, scrounging through his knapsack for something. "It'll save us both the paperwork."

Yahiko squinted in the dark as the two men argued back and forth. Did they really have a dead orphan in their hands? He could almost see the outline of her limp hand hanging dead from where he was.

Something brushed his free hand and his hair stood up automatically, almost making him gasp. He didn't dare to move for fear of being discovered but if this was what he thought it was..

"please move..please move" Yahiko silently pleaded in his head, focusing all of his mind as if he could somehow slide them on out from where he was with mental powers. He felt the same rat touch against his leg this time. Yahiko tilted his head back with his eyes closed tightly in silent agony.

The Rain ninja who was holding the dead body gave a few steps forward, refusing sharply Ken's suggestions to get them out of work earlier. "C'mon, let's get out of this dump and go back."

Ken uttered a curse and began to follow, much to Yahiko's immense relief. He could almost yell out right now but decided to do so once they were well out of earshot.

The guards began to move and there was a zip of a knapsack."My wife hates it when I smoke around her. You want a smoke Dan?" He asked, playing with the matchbox in his hand.

Yahiko's heart sunk as the tunnel was bathed in red light and the two rain ninja stood gaping at him in surprise.

"Damn!" Yahiko moved in a flash after the light came on, darting past the dumbstruck guards as fast as he could. The guard called Dan snapped out of it before his friend and he tossed the body of a young girl into Ken's arms urgently, the slow guard still holding the match to the pipe in his mouth in surprise.

"Hey! You're not going anywhere, come back here!" Dan yelled after the orange haired orphan.

"That's what all of you say!" Yahiko shot back over his shoulder. He was closing in on him.

The rat had been scratching at his leg and he couldn't run as fast as before from the injury. Looking down he could see some blood trickling down his leg.

Wincing, Yahiko grasped at his leg and outstretched his hand to the ladder handles getting closer and closer. He had to escape, he had to.

The scratches on him throbbed and Yahiko lost his footing. A moment was all the ninja needed before he lounged and pinned the struggling boy.

"Quit..squirming..kid!" Dan spluttered uselessly. The boy was recoiling his whole body under him and he couldn't set the restraints on his hands.

"Get off me!" Yahiko spat at the officer, who flinched and grunted painfully as he tried to clear his eye out from the spit.

"Dan? Do you need help?" Came Ken's worried voice from further down the tunnel as the two continued to struggle. In desperation, Yahiko drove his fist right into the officer's face, punching out his other good eye.

"Aaaagh!"

"What, are you so weak you can't even restrain a kid, Dan?" Ken yelled out in disbelief. He shook his head and set the dead girl's body down on the ground to go help his friend. Right as he began to straighten up, something connected with his face, throwing him off balance.

Blinded, he could only feel the next hit as it made him double over, howling in pain and covering his most vulnerable area.

Yahiko gritted his teeth in anger, grasping the kunai knife with both his hands and preparing to plunge it down on the officer, who could barely see. "You call yourselves ninjas? You're everything that's wrong with this dying country!"

As the knife came down, the fire in Ken's pipe disappeared and he blacked out.

xXx

The sun never shone in the Hidden Rain. The rain was a permanent curse on their country that had existed for as long as he could remember. The last time he had seen the sun was in days long gone by, when he was still a child being rocked in his mother's arms.

Yahiko skipped over the puddles slowly, gently supporting the dead girl forward with her legs dragging beneath her. His dirty, drenched hair hung heavily over his eyes and Yahiko shook his head to get it out of his line of vision.

He had made some distance from the city but it was not safe to go out too far. The warring factions were mostly in the outskirts fighting it out with many explosions thundering around the clock. Many of them could be seen from the city, no one was allowed out but that didn't stop him. He could use the tunnels to reach the sewage pipe exit where everything was dumped into the raging lake surrounding the village.

There was a small cave along the shoreline that he used sometimes, when he needed to get away from all the despair in the village. He set the girl down gently and backed against the cave wall, sliding down and flinching at another wave of pain.

"I'll heal..this is nothing" Yahiko thought defiantly, using the bandaging tape he stole from the ninja to wrap around his wound. He could feel the drops of dry blood on his face from when he had plunged the knife into the ninja's leg, to prevent him from moving and giving him more time escape. There was no way they could catch him now.

Yahiko stared off towards the lake, his caramel colored eyes wearily watching the waves trash and threaten to engulf the impressively tall towers of the village. He was in a lot of trouble for sure. His stomach growled in agreement.

* * *

A/n: Thanks for reading :)

And let me know what you think, review!


	2. Ch2: Gardening Tools

_I do not own Naruto._

* * *

"Well she's not dead that's for sure" Yahiko thought, washing the nameless girl's forehead with a damp cloth ripped from his old shirt.

He couldn't have just left her there to be taken away by the rain ninjas. Most of the orphans traded stories about how captured children were taken to the tallest tower in the village and were never seen again or heard from again.

Yahiko was sure that was just a rumor to discourage stealing, but he wasn't one to take any chances. Lightning flashed over the village just beyond the lake. He thought he saw it strike the tallest tower but he wrote it all off. It was all a bunch of nonsense and right now he had worse things to worry about.

Namely, this girl.

He had tended to some of her minor wounds and stitched them as best he could with the bandage tape he had stolen, but the fever was beyond him.

She had been burning up for several days now and Yahiko constantly paced with worry all over the cold, unwelcoming mouth of the cave. He had heard several patrols pass overhead on the road to the village but none had come close enough to the shore to spot them. Most likely they were just going on rounds and trying to discern the enemy's proximity to the village.

As far as he knew if the Hidden Sand or Leaf villages decided to take the fight closer to their home they had no defense. Yahiko slammed his fist into the cold rock of the cave wall, leaving a small hole in it and his hand moderately bruised but he didn't care.

It absolutely frustrated him that at the end of this pointless war none of them might still be alive. A war that they have no part in.

"Mmmhm" the girl shifted and sighed in her sleep, startling Yahiko away from his thoughts. He immediately knelt next to her, taking her temperature with his hand. He bit his lip as he felt her slightly warmer than the last time.

"Hang in there" Yahiko whispered softly, looking at the girl's pale and serene face. She had a natural light blue color to her short hair and he surprised himself when he started comparing her to an angel's sort of beauty.

He had found a wonderfully made origami flower in her pocket, which he had put next to the candle radiating their only warmth. Now though he felt that it would look better in her hair. He gingerly stuck the flower origami into the girl's hair and stepped back, smiling at his own intiative.

The days passed by and Yahiko could only take so much before he caved in to his stomach's clawing. Anymore and it could eat itself! He was hesitant about leaving the girl alone but he had no other choice.

"I'll just have to risk it or we'll both starve!" He thought grimly as he gently pushed some of the rain water he had collected in a bottle to the girl's lips. Maybe he could also stumble on some medicine while he was at it. It was a longshot but it was their only shot at all.

At dawn on the fifth day since their arrival, Yahiko threw his dirty cloak's hood on as he walked out of the cave, giving the sick girl one last look before he set out.

"I'll be right back, you'll see!" Yahiko promised fiercely before running out into the rain to scavange for some food.

XxX

The thunder in the black sky overhead was strong. It was an all-encompassing sound, fitting as a symbol of this carnage ravaging his people. Hanzo wheezed into his respirator as the wind whipped past and blew on his ravaged cape. Atop of the tallest tower he felt a tremendous power. One only given to those born to rule.

"What news have you obtained?" Hanzo asked, his metallic voice striking fear into his messenger. Only those in his innermost circle wore a prototypical respirator not unlike his own. Hanzo was very careful about who could see him and he did not trust lightly.

"The Leaf has been pushing into the village relentlessly" The messenger ninja said, kneeling before his master a few feet away. "If it came between us and them, I fear that-"

"Silence. I did not ask for your opinion" Hanzo breathed and the messenger silenced at once. The great leader ran his worn fingers through his long, blond hair. They had come closer to the city than he had anticipated. Clearly, peace negotiations were not on the table. Once Konoha decides to decimate another country they rarely hold back.

"Have you done as I asked and put a sensor shield around the village?"

"Indeed. Even as we speak our best shinobi are on it, sir" the messenger responded, shivering from the freezing cold. Each drop of rain slapping against him was like waking to a cascade of water thrown over you. It was a relentlessly piercing cold.

"However" The young messenger dared to continue, shaking off his preocupation with the rain. "We are running low on personnel to cover around the perimeter of the village. Many more have been lost in reconissance duties and I fear-"

"There are plenty of more people able to serve" Hanzo snickered dismissively. "The Hidden Rain is not short of brave and able bodied men able to take the burden of protecting this fair village."

For the first time, he turned around to face the messenger, his intense eyes drilling into the young ninja.

"In fact, this place is full of them" He extended his arm outright and opened his palm, as if catching the rain. Hanzo looked up at the tears coming down from the sky and smirked underneath his mask.

"Pass an order to draft every man over 21 and prepare them to defend the village" Hanzo commanded, willing his messenger to rise. The young ninja did so at once, shivering and his eyes fearful but eager to obey.

"Yes sir" The messenger saluted and disappeared from Hanzo's presence in a flash, leaving him completely alone. Hanzo stepped over to the edge of the roof, looking down fearlessly and with an a calm sense of confidence.

He was a tall and powerful figure, his face shadowed except for when lightning flashed, revealing bloodthirsty eyes and an angry long scar just below one of them. His metallic breathing soon gave way to laughter.

All of these things plaguing the village were nothing. They would survive, with him leading the way to the Hidden Rain becoming stronger than ever. He had absolute faith in his ability to rule.

XxX

Yahiko's fist pounded on the desk of the medicine shop in disbelief.

"The medicine isn't for me! It's for this girl, she's in pain!" Yahiko urged the shopkeeper, a middle aged man who look bewildered by the boy's forceful display. He shook his head "I'm sorry, but I cannot help your friend. We can barely help ourselves."

"Like hell you can!" Yahiko yelled, and the man frowned, grabbing his broom.

"If you don't get out of here right now.."

"You'll do what? Call the guards? Just try it and watch them ransack this whole place for war effort!" Yahiko cut him off, hungrily eyeing the fever pills he needed. The shopkeeper sighed, taken aback by the boy's determination.

He did not usually comply to such a threatening force, but in this kid it was different. He actually held some sort of respect for the brat's courage and strength.

"Wait here" The shopkeeper grudgingly ordered, walking towards the back of his shop where he kept all his inventory. Yahiko was surprised by his sudden compliance and stood in shock. Eventually he couldn't help but smile. The girl was going to be okay.

Minutes later, the shopkeeper came back with a bottle full of the fever pills. He eyed Yahiko suspiciously before tossing them to him. "Here."

"And don't come back here ever again or I'll make sure you never see the black sky again" The shopkeeper warned Yahiko, who had a grin split across his face.

Yahiko caught the pills and immeditately began to run out of the shop, waving them in his hand as he looked back. "Thanks mister!" Leaving a trail of soaking mud on the floor.

The shopkeeper sighed deeply. Yet, he couldn't help but smile at the brat's energy. If only there were more people with that kind energy leading them right now. Everyone needed a surge of hope.

Yahiko ran through the ghostown, gripping the pills firmly in his bandaged hand. Even in the middle of the day, if it was not a market day, almost no one came out of their homes for anything. Robbers were known to ambush people walking alone. Rain Ninja were too few and far between to keep much order. With only the sound of his steps echoing through the village, Yahiko wondered whether anyone actually lived here.

He stopped by some houses on his way to the cave, knocking on their doors and hoping that they had some food to spare. For many orphans in the Hidden Rain, this was their way of life and though Yahiko hated it, he did it anyway.

"Who's there? What do you want?" A shaky voice of a woman spoke through the slit of the barely opened door.

"Hello" Yahiko greeted, standing tall and trying to not to look undesirable, which was impossible in his worn out clothes and mudcaked hair. "I was just wondering if you had any bits of food you could spare? My friend is sick and we're both awfully hungry" he flashed a small, begging grin.

"Food? You know as well as I do that there's barely enough of that to feed oneself, let alone strangers who aren't even family" The woman responded sharply, yet she did not slam the door right away like most. This was the signal he had learned to watch out for, where he could potentially push just a little bit more.

"Even if it's just for one day, all we want is to survive like you do. And one small piece of cake could let us see another day" Yahiko pleaded, making his best googly eyes at the door and smiling. A moment later, the door was slammed in his face and the woman yelled from the inside for him to get lost.

Yahiko gritted his teeth angrily and started on his way. This had been the last home on the road to the shoreline. Going around the house, he glanced to his left and noticed the fresh leaves of tunips and corn growing in the house's backyward. His mouth watered in an instant.

As fast as he could, Yahiko ran to put his back against the wall and crouching, he slowly slithered right across under the two windows. He peeked a look through the corner. The garden was full with plentiful fruit and vegetables, enough to last them for a week if they were careful.

He wet his lips with his tongue and was about to charge in when he spotted him. A large, black hound sleeping soundly in the wooden house made for him. The dog could easily pin him down under that massive weight and take a chunk out of his neck.

"Damn it!" Yahiko thought, sitting at the entrance to the garden and considering his options. They wouldn't leave such a bounty in clear sight if there wasn't a catch in these desperate times. Unless he found a way to silence that dog, there was no way he was getting close to any of those fruits.

And yet he couldn't go back to the girl empty handed. The pain in his stomach was getting harder to bear with every minute. It was do or die. He couldn't possibly turn his back on all this food. His stomach wouldn't allow it.

Yahiko slipped his hand into his right side pocket of tools he stole from those rain ninja in the tunnels. Inside, he grabbed his most important weapon, the kunai knife. It was light in his hand and it's edges as sharp as those dog's teeth.

He put the handle of the knife in his hand and peeked through the window. There was no one in the kitchen or the living room beyond it. Now was his chance.

Yahiko climbed up to the roof, using the window edge for support. He stood on the roof overlooking the entire garden for a moment before closing his eyes and falling towards the ground gracefully.

As soon as his feet landed, Yahiko sped with amazing agility through the bushes of vegetables, grabbing everything he could get his hands on. The black dog had woken too and barked menacingly at the intruder's feet, following the boy through the garden.

Yahiko tried to lose the dog by diving through the bushes into the next line of shrubs. Surprisingly, the dog jumped right over the bushes and sped on his heels.

"Damn it, almost there!" Yahiko bit his lip, looking over his shoulder at the dog biting at his heels. He was almost to the fence where he could jump but there was no time. The dog was going to jump him in seconds.

Throwing all his stolen food into the air, Yahiko spun to meet the guard dog right as it wa sdiving through the air to pin him down. Out of reflex he put his hands up and fell down with the dog driving into him.

"Aagh!" Yahiko felt the kunai knife pierce the body of the dog, which howled once before going motionless on top of him. For a moment Yahiko lied there in shock, feeling as something hot spilled all over him. Blood.

"Crap!" he struggled to free himself from the enourmous weight but it was like trying to lift a boulder. He gasped and tried to breathe under the dog but it was becoming impossible. Across the garden heard the door open not to far away and cursed.

"Oh my god!" A cry erupted from the woman that had slammed the door on him. She pointed her finger at him as other people shot out of the house after her.

In desperation, Yahiko pushed and kicked the dog off him, relishing the air filling his lungs again. He didn't bother trying to recover the kunai from the dead animal, quickly trying to find any of the fruits he had tossed up.

"Hey! Stop! Thief!" the men yelled, running towards him. Yahiko scooped up all the fruits he could out of the ground and bolted, jumping through the fence just as the men dived to catch him. They were a hair away from catching his leg.

Yahiko sped down the road as fast as his legs could carry him, his heart threatening to burst from his chest. "I did it!" Yahiko laughed, unable to believe what he had done. "Ow!" He winced from the pain in his leg. The dog crushing him had just made his already injured leg worse.

Still, they had enough to eat and be comfortable for a long while, and he had left enough for that family to survive too.

Images of the girl lying alone and sick in the cave where he had left her crossed his mind. He could not let her die. Adrenaline shot through his body as he forced himself to run faster.

"I'm coming, just hold on" Yahiko thought, shaking his wet hair out of his sight and hoping the girl was still alive.

* * *

Slightly longer chapter this time, overall I hope to make them longer as I go on. I'll be trying to update regularly but if I don't know what you guys are thinking about this it makes it harder to know if you guys like it and I should keep going or what. So leave a review! Takes 5 seconds of your life, you can even flame me or whatever. Free shots here!

Thanks and see ya next time.


	3. Ch3: Looking A Bit Pale

A/n: A thanks to the reviewers and the lurking readers out there. Here's another chapter all set up and ready. Hope you like it.

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto_

* * *

Yahiko crouched at the edge of the cliff overlooking the great lake, quickly scanning the nearby surroundings for anyone of threat. The longer they kept this place a secret the better.

And there was no telling how many ninjas they'd send his way after that family reported his little food shopping spree.

He thrust himself off the edge, sliding all the way down till his feet were buried in sand. Turning around the cave's mouth awaited to swallow him whole. A bottomless darkness seemed to seduce him inside.

"Hmph." Yahiko raised an eyebrow as he gingerly walked inside. "The candle must've finally given out."

Steady drips of water land on his already soaked orange hair and Yahiko sighs with relief. He had made it.

"Hey! I'm home!" he called out happily to the blue haired girl in the dark, even if she was probably still uncounscious. The thrill of having so much to eat for once was just too much to contain.

Much like a blind man using his stick to get around, Yahiko extended his hand and laid it on the damp, rough cave wall, letting it guide him through the zig zags of the entrance.

Eventually he came upon the end of the cave, the small space he called home still lit by a weakening candle fire. It was barely still alive.

Lying peacefully asleep at the center of the space, the sight of the nameless girl stirred something funny in Yahiko's stomach. An overwhelming sense of wanting to protect her at any cost. Normally orphans look out for themselves but this girl..

"Hey, I'm here with your medicine!" Yahiko blurted out, barely able to contain himself. Eagerly he checked her temperature, finding it more or less the same as when he set off.

"Here, drink this. It'll make you feel better." Slowly he raised her head to the bottle of purple medicine, making sure not to spill any of it. The girl groaned a little in her sleep, uncounsciously slurping up some in her lips and swallowing painfully.

Yahiko grabbed some of the corn he had stolen and sat down to eat, feeding some of it to the girl once in awhile. Everything was as calm as when he had left but he was starting to feel worried. What if the medicine didn't have any effect? He was no medic ninja.

Often he had witnessed the wounded coming in from the battlefields and how medic ninjas used their chakra to heal them. The sight of the light blue shine at the palms of their hands as they used their jutsu to stitch the skin back together, it was both strange and wonderful.

"Have you ever seen them before? They can do anything." Yahiko said through a mouthful of corn to the unconscious girl.

"With that kind of power they can raise villages and rule nations. Really anything is possible!" He continued, the thunder outside marking another wave of downpour for the evening.

"If I had that kind of power I wouldn't have to go hungry anymore!" Yahiko raised himself, discarding the rest of the corn to the side of the cave. "There would be plenty enough to eat..everyone respects ninjas.."

"It's just that.."

"It's the Hidden Rain that's not respected. We let the other countries step all over us. Our ninja are weak. That's why they can't protect us." Lightning lit the cave in a white flash, the wind intruding upon them and blowing off the candle. Yahiko groaned in frustration, mumbling further off as he looked for another match. There was none.

As he searched the pile of tools he had stolen, rubble from the cave's ceiling began to fall down upon them. Heated talk began to make itself clearer overhead, getting closer and closer each second.

"It must be a patrol." Yahiko thought uncertainly, quickly putting his body over the girl's in a bid to protect her from the falling rocks. Dust gathered up and rocks continued to fall in the cave as more voices joined the chorus of the raging tempest.

"When are we going to get out of this rain?" Yahiko overheard from the surface. There was no way to know if they were native or the enemy.

As Yahiko tried to think of what to do, lightning flashed to reveal a skulking shadow making it's way inside. "Hey! I found a place we could wait the storm out, come here all of you!"

Yahiko's eyes widened in fear, looking all over the space for something to protect them, anything.

Spotting a set of shurikens from his side tool pack, Yahiko dove for them and stood at the ready in front of the girl.

The shadow slowly crept closer, ragged breathing and the dripping of water not even close to the sound of Yahiko's pounding heart.

As soon as his nose turned the corner, Yahiko let the shurikens fly and ran to the attack. The shuriken narrowly missed the nose as the figure shrunk back in the nick of time. It collided and stuck to the wall with a clink of metal.

With a roar Yahiko turned the corner and with all his strength tackled the intruder. It was almost like trying to bring down a tree.

"Aagh, get this kid off me!"

"What's wrong Captain, afraid of children are we?"

The Captain pushed Yahiko back with a powerful shove, making him hit the wall hard. "Agh, who are you?!" Yahiko demanded, picking himself up immediately and charging the two ninjas once again.

This time the second ninja intervened, grabbing Yahiko by the throat and restraining him forcibly against the wall. His pale, long fingers were locked around his neck and no matter how much he tried to wiggle free, he couldn't move his head at all.

"My my, what a noisy specimen you are" The ninja remarked, his long and unusual tongue slipping forth like a snake's. Yahiko's eyes widened in frightened fascination as he stared into the yellow depths of evil in the ninja's slit-like pupils.

He had long, dark hair and a dangerous look in those eyes. Eyes with an urging sense to kill. The headband he wore had a symbol in the shape of a leaf.

"Leave him Orochimaru, he's just a boy. And I've found some food in here, along with a girl." The Captain's voice came from within the children's sanctuary. Immediately Yahiko began screaming his head off in protest.

"Don't you dare! That's our food!" Yahiko threatened, clawing at his keeper's long, pale arms with his own small hands to no avail. The snake-like ninja just laughed at the efforts of the boy, intrigued by the force of his courage.

"I take it you live here? Well we are foreign people in a strange land. I imagine the Hidden Rain don't let their guests starve, do they?" Orochimaru chuckled lightly.

"We don't have any part in your stupid war" Yahiko choked out, making a regurgitating sound and spitting right into the face of the snake ninja. Orochimaru gave a cry of surprise and eased his hold on Yahiko, who took the opportunity to wiggle free and begin running to the cave's clearing.

As he entered an ear piercing scream threw him off balance. The Captain, an older man with a thick mustache and a long, thick sword strapped to his back, had the nameless girl restrained in some sort of cage made of the very earth.

"Now, be a nice girl..."

"Yahiko!" The girl cried out when she saw him, her eyes swimming in fear. The Captain turned to face the boy, this time quickly revealing a kunai from his knapsack.

"Stay back" he warned, inching his way to the girl and threatening the knife's point at her throat.

It was a no win situation. Helpless, Yahiko walked from side to side, trying to figure out a way to free the girl and escape. "There's no way I'm letting you take all our food!" He shot defiantly. The Captain gave a short chuckle, which annoyed Yahiko even more.

"What's so funny?!" Yahiko demanded, curling his dirty hands into fists.

"Oh nothing" The Captain smiled at him lightly, almost apologetically. Before he could figure out what he was smirking at, Yahiko felt something pierce his back and he immediately fell forward unconscious.

The last thing he heard was sickened girl yelling his name and an eerie laugh behind him before it all grew dark.

Something cool bushed against his cheek and made him wake up again. When he opened his eyes the nameless girl was kneeling next to him staring with worry, but at once smiling brightly once she saw he was up.

"Hi. I was wondering when you might get up." She said cheerfully, tying the damp cloth around his head to cool his fever.

For a second Yahiko allowed himself to remember what had happened. It was sketchy at most, especially when it all blacked out.

Immediately he bolted up, startling the girl. "What happened?!" He asked madly, looking all around the cave for the pile of food he had stored up. "Where's all our food?"

The orphan girl sighed, staring at him apologetically and pulling him back down again.

"I'm sorry, Yahiko..they took all the food and left." Her eyes watered as she readjusted the cloth back on. "I couldn't do anything. I.."

"What?" Yahiko shook his head, boiling on the inside but turning his focus on the girl as she shed some tears. "Why are you crying? Don't cry." He hated it when people cried.

"Because..you were really brave trying to save us and the food. I couldn't do anything." She lamented, looking around the empty cave clearing. She turned to him again, giving a small, shy smile.

"Don't worry about it. There was nothing you could've done" Yahiko said uncertainly, sitting up. He wasn't very good at comforting other orphans when they were crying all around him, their stomachs eating them inside out. His body was really sore from whatever they had paralyzed him with.

Yahiko flailed his arms around, trying to shake them off from sleep. The girl wiped her tears on her arm and walked over to the other side of the cave for a moment, bringing back his side pocket of weapons.

"I managed to save this. As they walked out I sorta jumped them in one silly effort to.." The nameless girl put the side pocket at Yahiko's side, who grinned when he saw it wasn't stolen.

"Thanks! Umm.." He didn't know the girl's name and yet she knew his somehow. The girl removed the paper flower from her hair and smiled, offering him the flower. "My name is Konan."

"Konan, huh?" Yahiko stood up from the sick blanket and stretched, yawning loudly. Konan gave a soft giggle. He looked really funny when he yawned, as if he were about to devour a whole lion in one bite.

Looking around, Yahiko couldn't help but feel disappointed with having lost his precious hoard of food. Yet he could also feel Konan watching him and he suddenly got this strange feeling where he just couldn't act all depressed. He had to be strong.

"Alright! We're heading out to get some more food!" Yahiko yelled energetically, pointing to the cave's exit and running out. Bewildered, Konan stood stunned for a minute before she heard the boy outside yell for her to hurry.

"C'mon Konan! Let's get moving before the rain comes back!"

Snapping out of her trance, slowly Konan's lips curved into a smile. She wouldn't have to be alone for now.

XxX

"If we're lucky, we might even run into those freaks again" Yahiko said, slamming one fist into his palm. "We'll show them who they're stepping all over."

Konan smiled at the wild things the boy was prone to saying out of the blue. She had never met someone who always spoke their mind like that. It was a welcome change to the scary life she had been living until now.

"Say, do you know why those two Rain ninjas were carrying you over to the tallest tower? Yahiko blurted out the question as soon as he thought of it. The girl raised an eyebrow at him quizzically, she couldn't remember any ninjas capturing her..

Unless..

"Oh! Those two.." She trailed off, shaking her head. Yahiko kept glancing her way expecting some kind of answer but she did not say anything after that. Silence reigned as they made their way to the village.

After awhile he decided that he was unable to stop himself. "What happened? Did they…" He searched her face for some kind of clue as to what he thought had happened. It certainly wasn't uncommon...Orphans disappearing, some coming back to light and never speaking again from whatever horror they crawled out of.

Her face gave nothing away as she inspected the village's towers growing taller and taller the closer they got. The road was slippery and in heavy disrepair. Behind at distance an explosion rocked the earth and sent small bits of rock raining down on them.

"Do your parents wait inside the village for you, Yahiko?" Konan piped up, ignoring the subject of the two ninjas. The question took Yahiko by surprise. He had not thought of his father in days.

Seeing his crestfallen face, Konan quickly added "You don't have to answer that. I can be pretty insensitive sometimes."

"What? No." The orange haired boy shook his head and smiled lightly at her. "It's not that. I've just never spoken about it to someone else at all."

"People don't really care what your story is in this village. All they care about is trying to survive."

"Are we going to survive, Yahiko?" Konan asked uncertainly. Yahiko looked at her, taking a big breath. He couldn't be sure of that. No one could.

Yet he sure as hell wasn't going to give up now.

"There's no way we're going to croak anytime soon." Yahiko shot defiantly towards the black sky.

"We'll survive, anyway we have to!" he smiled at Konan confidently as they approached the village borders and the rain began to fall again.

* * *

A/n: Looks like Konan finally woke up! I'm pretty sure you all guessed it was her right? Of course you did, you bunch of geniuses. Could've fooled me though. Read and Review! It helps me bring you better material. That means you, lurkers.

Be on the lookout for the next chapter.


End file.
